


things you said with too many miles between us

by greedlings



Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: F/F, Long-Distance Relationship, Love Confessions, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-25
Updated: 2017-10-25
Packaged: 2019-01-23 04:12:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12498500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greedlings/pseuds/greedlings
Summary: Umi's fantasies never seem to help with her loneliness.Sometimes, however, fantasies don't compare with reality.





	things you said with too many miles between us

**Author's Note:**

> this was from a tumblr prompt list! thanks taylor for the prompt!!

_ how was your performance? _ Umi hit send, then rolled her head back. Ever since μ’s retired and went their own ways, a rift had formed within Umi’s heart; she was missing a piece of herself, and Eli was the only thing that made her feel whole again.

 

The only problem: Eli was so busy with the Russian ballet that she hardly had time to talk with Umi. 

 

This time, however, Eli response was almost instantaneous,  _ Good! How are things going in Japan? _

 

Umi felt a smile creep onto her face as she typed back.  _ pretty good! i have an archery competition coming up, so i’m super busy, but not in a bad way lol. _ After sending the text, Umi placed her phone on the couch and walked into the kitchen. 

 

Her mind was filled with unreasonable scenarios as she poured herself a glass of water; what if Eli walked into her house at that moment? How tight would they hold each other after the years they’d been apart? Would Eli’s heartbeat be as steady and gentle as it always had been? Or would her heart be racing as they embraced? What would Umi even say?

 

She shook those thoughts from her head; she was ninety-nine percent sure that that would never happen.

 

Umi made her way back to her phone, glass of water in hand. She had been daydreaming for nearly five minutes- that wasn’t really a lot of time, but Umi felt awful for leaving Eli hanging for that long. When she reached the couch, Umi noticed that her phone was still on (something she did a lot, much to her dismay) and was displaying new messages.

 

Eli was a constant double-texter, so Umi was expecting the five new messages. Her eyes flicked through the messages from top to bottom; Oh cool!... Good luck!...

 

The one that really caught Umi’s eyes, however, was the newest message, sent a few minutes after the ones wishing her luck in her competition:

 

_ I really miss you. _

 

A gentle smile crept onto Umi’s face, and with one hand she texted back  _ i miss you too. _

 

She didn’t even have time to sit down before another text came through.

 

_ Can we call? _

 

Almost immediately, Umi’s screen showed that Eli was calling. She almost hesitated- Eli had almost never sounded so urgent in a text before- but her finger hit the ‘accept call’ button before she had time to worry about it.

 

“What’s u-”

 

“I love you.” Eli’s voice was shaky and breathless on the other end, as if she had just finished running a marathon. Umi could picture what Eli’s face looked like; her eyebrows tilted slightly up as if she was concerned, her eyes open and unprotected, not unlike her heart in the moment.

 

“U-Umi? I think I just heard a glass shatter, are you okay?” Umi looked down to see that the glass of water she had in her hand had slipped out, shattering when it met the floor. 

 

(Umi would later insist that it was the condensation on the glass that made the glass slip, but she and everyone else knew that she had really just dropped it out of shock.)

 

“Y-yeah, I’m fine,” said Umi, tiptoeing around the shards of glass, “Can I ask you to repeat what you just said?”

 

Umi heard an airy laugh from the other line, “You’re so cute.”

 

“No, I don’t think that’s what you said. It sounded to me like you said that you- that you…”

 

“That I love you?”

 

Umi’s face felt hotter all of a sudden, and her heartbeat sped up tenfold. She stopped moving around the glass. “I-I don’t know if I understa-

 

“I love you, and I have for a long time.”   
  


Umi, now able to collect her thoughts into a coherent sentence, though barely, said, “I have too! I mean, I always thought that you preferred… others. I figured you’d find a man and settle down, or at least settle down with Nozomi.”

 

Eli laughed once again, “ Nozomi is great, but you were always the one that I wanted.”

 

“I… never thought I’d hear that directly from y-ah!”

 

“What?”

 

Umi grimaced, “Nothing, just a little glass.”

 

Eli sighed on the other line. “Make sure to take care of it properly.”

 

It was Umi’s turn to laugh; it had been a long time since Umi had laughed so genuinely. “Do you know who you’re talking too? Of course I’ll take care of it.”   
  
“Okay.” Umi swore she could hear Eli’s smile through the speaker of the phone. “When is your archery competition?”   
  
Umi was startled by the sudden change of topic. “Uh, this Saturday.”

 

Eli hummed, “You know, I think I’ll come up to see you.”   
  
“What?” Umi said, flabbergasted, “What about the ballet?”

 

“You’re more important to me that any ballet, Umi.”   
  
Umi felt her heart stop. “But-”

 

“I’m coming up, no negotiation. Now, take care of that foot, please.”   
  
“I-I will.”   
  
Eli giggled, then said “I love you!” before hanging up.

 

Umi stood with the phone to her ear for a minute, trying to comprehend what had just happened. The throbbing in her foot was overshadowed by the pounding of her heart; never in her life did Umi think that Eli, the beautiful, kind, hardworking Eli would share feelings with Umi was an incredibly abstract though up until about two minutes prior to this moment.

 

The best way to collect her thoughts, Umi decided, was cleaning up the mess of glass and water from the floor. It worked: after finally coming to terms with what happened, Umi had one question.

 

_ Wait, _ Umi texted,  _ does this mean we’re dating? _

 

Eli didn’t text back right away, leaving Umi enough time to toss the glass fragments into the garbage. When she came back, there was a single text from Eli.

 

_ I think you know the answer to that one <3 _

 

Umi felt like that might not have been the best way to say yes, but she excused it. It was Eli’s unique way of saying things that made Umi fall in love with her in the first place.

**Author's Note:**

> i have no idea how to write texts lol
> 
> comments are appreciated!


End file.
